BRATTLEBORO — Internet-based artwork is the subject of a real-life art exhibit opening Saturday, April 12, at the Center for Digital Art (CDA), 72 Cotton Mill Hill.
This newest exhibition, “We Stay Connected,” is a group show of four young contemporary artists representing the growing world of Net art: digital artwork that exists on websites and in social media, often made in response to Internet cultures and pop culture trends and memes.
All four artists in the show - Mary Rachel Kostreva, Douglas Schatz, Arjun Ram Srivatsa, and Brattleboro native Simon Slowinski - were key members of Net art collective Tight Artists Net Gang (TANG).
Co-founded by Kostreva, TANG settled in at www.tightartists.com, where any Net artist could create a profile to display their work in customizable galleries.
It is a reality for many traditional artists that the route to exposure consists of a university education (if you can afford one) followed by gallery circulation (if you're lucky).
In contrast, organizer say, Net art communities such as TANG circumvent this system - often for political and egalitarian reasons, but sometimes just because the online artist community experience creates a microcosm of the art world itself.
“TANG functioned as a sort of salon for Net art” says Schatz. Not only was it free and easy to post your own work, but communicating with other artists came at the click of a button ... so networking and learning new techniques became common aspects of any TANG membership.
Schatz, Srivatsa, and Slowinski, will be at the exhibition discuss their processes and their experiences.
For many digital artists, the Internet is more than just a space to learn and exhibit; the online user experience is a muse in and of itself, organizers say.
The workshop, Saturday, April 12, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., presents a slice of the digital image landscape, reviewing how digital content is produced, consumed, collected, and appropriated.
Participants will learn how to make their own GIFs, animations, and collages combining video, photography and/or computer animation.
The goal of this workshop, organizers say, is to benefit people who work in all media, whether virtual or tactile. Participants should come away with some flexible new skills for thinking and making. No prerequisite skills are required, though basic Photoshop and computer skills are a plus.
The exhibition opening reception follows at 6:30.